What is the Design Process? 

Scope

Constraints and Our Theme

Concentric Design

In this project you will learn about using a design process to take your idea from a broad concept into a finished, polished game, the concept of scope will help you achieve your goal of making a game, how constraints can help you create rules to keep you in scope,  and how to use the specific design process, concentric design.

The Design Process

Course Introduction and Planning

Game Jams and Skilling Up

Set your goals and find your community

Why Prototype? 

Assets shouldn't be liabilities

The Stages of Game Development

Planning your project

CRC Cards

Your First Milestone: Vertical Slice

Why Agile?

Vertical Slice - Part Two

Refactoring

Sprint Planning

Alpha Build

What is Playtesting?

How To Playtest

Sprint Plan

Review and Redesign

How to Release your Game

Alpha and Beyond

Bonus Content

In this project you will learn about what's ahead for you on your journey to finishing a game! You'll also get a chance to confirm that you have the right knowledge and skills to get the most out of the course, along with links to useful resources that will help you on your way. You will also learn how to equip yourself for your journey, and meet some of your fellow adventurers.

Goal Setting and Community Building

In this project you will find out if your game idea is fun through Prototyping. You will also learn how to make a plan for assets you will use in your game – the sounds, images, models, animations and other resources that make up a game – to avoid nasty surprises later in development. 

Prototyping

In this project you will learn how to keep a sense of the big picture by dividing the game development process into stages and milestones, hit your first major milestone in the development of a game through creating a vertical slice, and learn two planning tools you can use to plot a course to a finished game. 

Milestones

Agile Development

Professional teams schedule some time for code cleanup after each milestone so their code stays flexible and easy to work with. This project will give you some tips and general principles for this process, known as refactoring. With your vertical slice done and your code in good shape, this is where you’ll start down the road to alpha.

Writing Better Code

Playtesting is more than just asking people if your game is fun. It's a structured process for collecting useful information about specific parts of your design. In this project you will learn why Playtesting helps you collect useful information on your design and how to execute the entire process. 

Playtesting

In this project you will learn how to release your game, what the next steps are after game release, and additional tips for getting to the end. 

Release your game

Lots of people start games, but it’s surprisingly hard to finish one. This course guides you through the process used by professional game makers to develop their ideas, keep their projects on track and deliver a complete, released game. 

 that will help you quickly design and prototype your games. These resources can accelerate your development process and help you achieve your goal of releasing a polished game!

Design and Publish Your Original Game: Unity USC Games Unlocked

8a751b32-8e31-5444-942e-bf9b451e73dc:KNyBhALw6RpujrBA0XwL6K

Concept_Doc_Template_and_Scope_Check.pdf

Concept_Doc_Example_-_Catlateral_Damage.pdf

Concept_Doc_Example_-_Tetris.pdf

Resource Constraints

Introduction to Concentric Design

Examples of Design Docs and Process 

Create a Concept Document

What's Next? 

Know Your Audience

Fighting for a Feature

Cops Strike

atul1307

You play as a shepherd tending to his flock.    

Concept Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YgrsaRqYnJer08OllvjZCQzHRpKlErP9gWZ7XIvK9rs/edit?usp=sharing    

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YIBxhxVAD_X2jYsL-9Af48KGMhYUeMzY-TvOL-gkpZg/edit?usp=sharing

Outfoxed

RiyaanWilliams

A game about running over zombies with a car inside a parking garage.

Driven To Death

rayscottsmith

This is the link of my design doc Stroop Shape: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xKDRNW_3GMcoTgVwNI_mHwc-cupKH4zwM20YzRcS5dg/edit?usp=sharing

Stroop Shape

Izzuddin Naufal Hakim

i only uploaded two defferent types of project document that i used to write my game idea down. please kindly share your thoughts with me!

Can You Dig It, Sasha?!

SarokEhsan

The game will be a text based choice fiction. Little to no graphics except for UI is initially planned. The game will take references from already established titles like Undertale, warsim and Mushroom Hunt. Most of the functionality will be added after a functional implementation. 

Bravo Concept - Text based choice fiction

bodi-524

A simple web game where you play as a scientist counting germs in a microscope slide. 

Germ Count

Kevin

Developer

This is a simple project and I aim to finish it until the end of the month. I think I can finish it before then

Bunny Garden

erikiyou

Resource_Constraints.mp4

Concentric_Design.mp4

Target_Audience.mp4

Fighting_for_a_Feature.mp4

Making the best game you can means building your idea from the center outwards, a process called concentric design.

Unity + USC Games Unlocked

Games

Use these resources to dive further into Concentric Design, learn about the Cerny-John Method and review sample concept documents: 

This is the original article by Michael John and Mark Cerny. It’s written for industry professionals, and describes the process for a large team, but the principles are clear. “Our guess is that 80 percent of mistakes in game development are the direct result of things done – or not done – in preproduction.” 

Here is Extra Credits discussing the “minimum viable product,” covering many of the principles of concentric design. “What is the minimum that we can build and test before deciding if what we have is ... worth expanding upon?” 

Matthew Palaje offers a free template for a very short concept document – intended specifically for game jam games – and explains how to use it. “...so you can dive into prototyping with a plan.”

A history of game design documents with actual documents for everything from Donkey Kong to Half-Life 2. “From visualizations to project planning, from code to creativity, these paper and digital works are an art in and of themselves.” 

In this assignment you will prepare a concept document for your game. This is a short document capturing the essence of your game idea. You’ll then answer some questions that are designed to help you see whether you can actually finish it during this course. This is a peer evaluation assignment, which means that you'll first submit your own concept and scope check document file and you should then provide feedback to another person's submission. Here are the steps:

1. Download the template and the sample concept documents. 

2. Watch the two-minute video here http://bit.ly/GameJamConceptDoc.

3. Fill in the Concept and Scope Check template with information about your game concept. Ask yourself the following questions:

When I think about someone playing my game, most of what they're doing is thinking about what to do next. Examples: match-three, sokoban, hashi, KAMI 2, Threes!, I Love Hue, Reigns, Blueprint Word, Bowmasters, Hitman Go 

Playing my game consists entirely, or almost entirely, of making narrative choices. Examples: The Walking Dead, 80 Days, Rewrite, Dream Daddy, Butterfly Soup, Hatoful Boyfriend, perhaps Firewatch

My game requires quick reflexes and coordination. Examples: Angry Birds, Beat Sneak Bandit, Color Road, Duet, Super Hexagon, Jetpack Joyride, Kingdom Rush, Tiny Wings

My game doesn't really fit any of the above. Examples: Cut the Rope, Puzzle Juice, Circadia, Rodeo Stampede, FTL, Swap Sword, You Must Build a Boat

4. Take a screenshot of your document (Concept and Scope Check together) and upload it as your submission to this assignment (see the "Submit Assignment" block below - this will also add the document to the Gallery).

5. After you submit, we highly recommend reviewing and giving feedback, via comments in the Gallery, to at least 2 fellow course participants. As you review a fellow learners document, briefly answer the questions below to help you provide feedback to them: 

What's interesting? - Imagine you are playing the game that your classmate is proposing. What is the most interesting thing about it? It doesn’t have to be a unique feature – it could be something that reminds you of another game you like.

Look at the numbers - Imagine the game described in the concept. Whether the designer describes them or not, think about the kinds of things you’d encounter in the game – kinds of enemy, types of power-up, jumping sequences, levels, and so on. - Does the scope check say how many there will be of each thing? - Does it note whether the number could be scaled down? - Do you see any numbers you think could be smaller without destroying the game experience?

Asset strategy - Check that the scope check describes a strategy for finding/making assets. - Was your classmate able to find or make decent quality sample assets?

Code challenges - Based on your own experience making games (whatever level that may be), think about implementing the core features of gameplay, e.g. dragging a card to a deck, making one-way or moving platforms, creating spells and enemies with elemental alignments. - Imagine you had to write the code. Which feature seems like it would be hardest for you to make? - Is there a way that your classmate could simplify that feature (or even cut it altogether!) and still end up with an interesting game?

Help out - Think about how you might help your classmate. Is there a resource you can send them, e.g. a GDC Vault talk or a tutorial, that would be helpful? Is there a coding trick or an art technique that you can share? Type them in here.

Is it doable? - Imagine you're a publisher. You're deciding whether to invest money in this game, so you need to evaluate this game's scope vs the schedule. How would you rate it? 1 is "unlikely to finish in time" and 10 is "confident they'll finish".

In the next project you’ll learn about the most important tool in the game designer’s toolbelt: the prototype. 

We’ll cover the many ways you can prototype a game, and then you’ll design and make your own. This is where you go from thinking about your game to actually making it! 

Before you go consider watching these two bonus videos where out experts discuss why it's important to know your audience and when to fight for a feature even if it's threatening scope creep. 

Concentric Design

1. Resource Constraints

2. Introduction to Concentric Design

3. Examples of Design Docs and Process

4. Create a Concept Document

Please login to submit

5. What's Next?

6. Know Your Audience

7. Fighting for a Feature